Tech News

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Update - 290

Since the summer of last year, Samsung and Rovio Mobile have been teaming up to draw more attention to the Galaxy SII line. Two weeks ago, Angry Birds Space made its first appearance at SXSW in Austin, and yesterday the game was officially released to the Google Play Store. It's already garnered many rave reviews. I downloaded the game to my tablet, and was so hooked after 5 minutes of gameplay that I decided to get the game on my phone due to some exclusive perks for Samsung Galaxy owners.
To commemorate the launch the game, an exclusive Samsung Galaxy Note level has been added along with an add-on package called "Danger Zone" (normally an in-app purchase), available free to Samsung Galaxians for the next three months. Samsung is even holding several contests, which you can check out here. Users can join contests and win anything from some of the best Android phones out there all the way up to their very own star.
So clearly, Rovio and Sammy are working together to promote the Galaxy Line and Angry Birds at the same time. With the rumored GSIII possibly around the corner, we could see even more from these two companies in the months to come.
Who's excited for more bird slingin', pig poppin' action? If you aren't already addicted, you can download Angry Birds Space below, and leave us a comment with your thoughts!conversione applicazioni iphone android

When it was announced, Google Wallet was a sensation. The convenience of paying with a smartphone represented a huge leap in the way we see and use technology. Sadly, the mobile payment service has not been very successful, and the search giant finds itself re-evaluating its strategy to improve adoption.
Internal sources are claiming that Google is thinking of offering part of the revenue with Verizon and AT&T. This would further entice the two largest U.S. carriers to support Google Wallet. The service is currently only available from Sprint (officially), lacking enough range to become popular.
Furthermore, it is only officially available for one device - The Nexus S 4G. Though this will be changing soon: The Sprint Galaxy Nexus is said to come soon (possibly during April), and Sprint is planning to bring 10 Google Wallet-supported devices during 2012. But in order to succeed, such service would need leverage from other carriers, as well.
It is yet to be seen if AT&T and Verizon would be willing to do this, though. The carriers, along with T-Mobile, are working together to launch ISIS, a competing mobile payment service. Investments in this service have been substantial, and ISIS seems to be ahead of Google Wallet even before its debut, with a plethora of partnerships.
Google seems to have a back-up plan, though. If carriers reject the offer, Google is looking to set them aside and rely solely on payment terminals. Instead of the payments being authenticated via the carrier, transaction information would be sent to Google's servers. These would then clear the transaction and allow purchases to be completed.
Regardless, such work-arounds would require a large investment. Payment terminals would need extra hardware in order for this process to function. Google will probably try to work things out with the other carriers. But if all goes wrong, we could see a very risky future for Google Wallet. ISIS is almost ready, and it looks very promising.
So where do you see Google Wallet going? Think the carriers will bite? Drop a comment below!SourceBloombergviaDroid-Life

BGR is claiming that the next Kindle Fire is only months from production, and that it's poised to be bigger, badder, and a whole lot faster.
Rumor has it that the new Fire will bring a 10-inch display to the table, and pack a nice NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core. It's supposedly launching sometime during the second quarter of this year. Amazon hasn't actually said anything to this effect, but DigiTimes has leaked that Amazon ordered a chassis for the new device from Catcher in Taiwan. That's all that we know at this point, so it could be the next Kindle Fire, or just a big hoax cooked up by someone to keep us busy. More on this as it develops.
I don't know about you, but I certainly enjoyed the first Kindle Fire. Is anyone planning on picking up this quad-core piece of Amazon goodness if/when it drops? Sound off in the comments!